After practice Friday in Brossard, Canadiens coach Claude Julien spoke about how he had his players doing drills that he hoped would help them score more goals.

“We worked on trying to get our guys to score,” the coach said. “You see even in practice today — not that we’re just working on that — but three-on-twos and two-on-ones, trying to get some confidence built on those guys.”

The drills seemed to work as the Canadiens — coming off a 2-0 loss Thursday night in Carolina — beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 Saturday afternoon at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens will be hoping to keep the goals coming when they face the Ottawa Senators Sunday afternoon at the Bell Centre (1 p.m., SN, RDS, TSN Radio 690) to wrap up their Super Bowl weekend.

“We talked about the things that we were doing well and what we had to continue doing and we carried it into today’s game,” Julien said after Saturday’s victory. “So it is nice to get some positive results. I think our guys have been working hard to try and get those results and hopefully we can move on from this afternoon and think about tomorrow afternoon and continue to do that work that we’re looking to do and come up with the wins.”

Four of the five Canadiens goals Saturday came from defencemen with Jeff Petry scoring twice and Joe Morrow and David Schlemko adding singles. Logan Shaw scored the other Montreal goal.

The Canadiens also scored three power-play goals and are now ranked ninth in the NHL on the power play with a 20.8 per cent success rate.

Jonathan Drouin, who left Saturday’s game after taking a Karl Alzner slapshot to the back, will be a game-time decision on Sunday.

Super Bowl pick

The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles will square off in the Super Bowl Sunday in Minnesota (6:30 p.m., CTV, TSN2, NBC, RDS).

The Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher is a huge Cincinnati Bengals fan, but will be cheering for the Patriots Sunday night.

“I got the Patriots winning again,” Gallagher said after practice Friday in Brossard. “I think the Eagles will probably keep it close. They can run the ball well, so that will probably be their mindset, keeping Tom (Brady) off the field. But Brady and (coach Bill) Belichick are probably going to win and it will be pretty cool to watch.”

Gallagher predicted a final score of Patriots 24, Eagles 13.

“If I’m right, call me a genius,” he said.

“This is tough, because my dad’s a huge Patriots fan and my sister is a big Eagles fan,” Gallagher added. “The Patriots always win, so I’m OK handling that. But the Eagles can’t win because I can’t deal with two people in the family bugging me. So I don’t want my sister’s team to win.”

Karl Alzner said he will be cheering for the Eagles.

“I think I’m the same as everybody,” the defenceman said. “I want the Eagles to win, but kind of think the Pats are going to win. I’m good either way. I think it’s kind of a cool story what the Pats are doing right now, but at the same time you always root for the underdog.”

Slow start

The Canadiens were outshot 9-0 in the first five minutes Saturday against the Ducks, but rebounded to score three goals before the first period was over and the shots were 16-9 for Anaheim after 20 minutes. The Ducks pulled goalie Ryan Miller at 8:28 of the first period after he allowed three goals on seven shots.

“We’re critical of our team when we lose,” Julien said. “I’m not going to start being critical of our team because we gave up nine shots, most of them from the outside, and the first five minutes belonged to them. Well, the next 15 belonged to us and so we won that first period. That’s how I look at it.”

Niemi shines

Goalie Antti Niemi was the first star Saturday after stopping 43 of 45 shots to improve his record to 2-1-1 with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage since the Canadiens claimed him off waivers from the Florida Panthers on Nov. 14.

Niemi started the season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, going 0-3-0 with a 7.49 goals-against average and a .797 save percentage before being claimed off waivers by the Panthers on Oct. 24. In Florida, Niemi had a 0-1-0 record with a 5.11 goals-against average and a .872 save percentage before being claimed by the Canadiens.

“It just goes to show that sometimes you can look at stats all you want,” Julien said about Niemi. “It depends on what kind of situation he was in. As far as I’m concerned, he’s always been good here every time he’s come in he’s played. He’s won his last two games.”

Niemi stopped 24 of 26 shots in a 3-2 win over the Capitals in Washington on Jan. 19.

“His compete level, his work ethic, his preparedness, everything is good in this guy,” Julien said about Niemi. “He’s not afraid to work and because he’s got such a good attitude and a good work ethic he’s getting rewarded for it and we’re getting rewarded for it as well. So I’m really happy with his game.”

Carey Price will start in goal against the Senators on Sunday. Price has a 14-19-4 record with a 2.97 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.

Where they stand

The Canadiens (21-25-6) are in 14th place in the Eastern Conference and trail the Philadelphia Flyers (24-19-9) by nine points for the final wild-card playoff spot.

The Senators (17-24-9) are in 15th place in the Eastern Conference, five points behind the Canadiens. The Senators are coming off a 4-3 shootout win over the Flyers Saturday in Philadelphia.

Crowd will sing national anthem

Nolan White, the young boy who sang the national anthems before Saturday’s game at the Bell Centre, did a wonderful job. But on Sunday, the Canadiens will have the fans at the Bell Centre sing the national anthem. That’s always a special moment with fans singing O Canada together in both official languages.

Scherbak gets feet wet

Nikita Scherbak, called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Friday, had only five minutes of ice time through the first two periods Saturday, but played 5:41 in the third period and finished the game with no shots and one assist.

Scherbak started the game playing on a line with Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk, but after Drouin took a slapshot from Karl Alzner in the second period and had to leave the game Scherbak was moved to a line with Paul Byron and Max Pacioretty.

“I liked his game well enough that I had no issue putting him out there with Paulie and Patch to play because I needed Charlie (Hudon) to take over a centre position,” Julien said. “So definitely not disappointed in him and hopefully we get a little bit more stability and he gets some more ice moving forward.”

Scherbak was also used on the power play, logging 2:55 of ice time with the man advantage and his assist came on Morrow’s power-play goal.

“It’s a good chance for me,” Scherbak said. “I got to use it. I just got to be confident, trust myself with what I can do and work hard.

“I try to improve myself every day and try to get better in all the aspects of the game,” he added. “I try to get better at everything, no matter what, whether it’s a shot or anything else. Just try to get better every day.”

Canadiens numbers

The Canadiens rank 27th in the NHL in offence, scoring an average of 2.56 goals per game, and rank 24th in defence, allowing an average of 3.10 goals per game. They rank ninth on the power play (20.8 per cent) and 24th in penalty-killing (78.4 per cent).

Pacioretty leads the Canadiens in scoring with 16-16-32 totals, followed by Galchenyuk (12-18-30), Gallagher (18-11-29), Drouin (7-19-26) and Petry (7-17-24).

Senators numbers

The Senators rank 26th in the NHL in offence, scoring an average of 2.58 goals per game, and 29th in defence, allowing an average of 3.34 goals per game. They rank 28th on the power play (15.8 per cent) and 28th in penalty-killing (75.5 per cent).

Goalie Craig Anderson has a 13-17-5 record with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage, while former Canadien Mike Condon has a 4-7-4 record with a 3.27 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.

What’s next?

The Canadiens have the day off on Monday and will practise at 11 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Brossard before heading to Philadelphia, where they will play the Flyers on Thursday night (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690). The Nashville Predators and P.K. Subban will make their only visit to the Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m., SN360, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690). Subban leads the Predators in scoring with 13-27-40 totals and is plus-13 while averaging 24:02 of ice time per game. Subban has 12-9-21 totals in his last 21 games.

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